Pandemic Legacy July Playthrough Part 2

— SPOILER ALERT BEGINS HERE —

IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE JULY EPISODE OF PANDEMIC LEGACY YET, DO NOT READ THIS BLOG UNTIL YOU DO. PLENTY OF INFORMATION ABOUT THAT THE JULY EPISODE IS REVEALED HERE.

— SPOILER ALERT ENDS HERE —

Recap: In the first six months, the disease in Asia (i.e. the red cubes) mutated into the non-treatable and incurable COdA virus. In April the virus further mutated into the COdA-403c virus and the afflicted became the Faded, with ground zero for the new mutation in Ho Chi Minh City. We suffered a crushing defeat in our first attempt at the May episode as Moscow melted down, while the Blue and Yellow viruses spread like wildfire across the Americas and Africa. Outbreaks came at lightning speed and we lost due to the too many outbreaks rule. In a heroic effort in the second episode of May, we triumphed and kept the diseases under control. A rather lucky draw of cards in June allowed us to triumph in our first attempt. But now the government was barely funding events, so July looked to be a tough month. In our first attempt in July we lost so quickly that one of the three players didn’t get a second turn! We did however find the Virologist. See review here (Pandemic Legacy July Episode – Part One).

July Part 2 Setup

We had a strange draw of cards, with an unusual number of Red (Faded) cards being drawn. We had 3 Faded in Beijing and Bangkok and 2 Faded in Manila and Seoul and not a single Blue (Fischer-Titus) cube on the board! We had a Funded Event total of 4 so we selected the One Quiet Night, Local Initiative, Resilient Population, and Remote Treatment cards.

Our friend Kristie joined us this week, so we had 5 players. With only rules for a 4-player game, we decided that Bob and Stew would work together. Seeing the clear threat of the Faded in Asia, we knew that someone would have to be the Quarantine Specialist. After determining play order, here are our character picks:

Bob/Stew — Researcher

Neal — Medic

Lee — Scientist

Kristie — Quarantine Specialist

We used our June win bonus to add some roadblocks to the board.

Here is what the board looked like after set-up was finished:

July Part 2 Start — Note all the Faded!

Gameplay

The basic idea was for the Quarantine Specialist to stay in Asia and deal with the Faded while the Researcher/Scientist combo powered out cures and the Medic mopped up cubes.

Turn 1

The Researcher was first and quarantined Bangkok. The Medic removed cubes in Baghdad and Washington. The Scientist picked up a blue card from the Researcher and flew to N. America where he blockaded western routes from San Francisco. The Quarantine Specialist quarantined Seoul, Kolkata and Hong Kong.

Turn 2

The Researcher moved to Kolkata and flew to N. America to get to San Francisco to be with the Scientist. They drew the 1st Epidemic and it was in London. The Medic moved toward some cubes and drew the 2nd Epidemic in Istanbul, which led to an outbreak in Seoul (#1) which spread to Shanghai (#2). The Scientist cured both Blue (Fischer-Titus) and after getting a card, Yellow (BSNL-419) and played One Quiet Night to not draw some dangerous infection cards on his turn. The Quar. Spec. quarantined Ho Chi Minh City.

Turn 3

The Researcher treated Santiago in an effort to eradicate BSNL-419. The Medic ferried trans-Atlantic and treated London. The Scientist treated Kinshasa and BSNL-419 was eradicated (Objective #1 completed). The Quar. Spec. put down quarantines in Osaka and Shanghai as the Faded continued to multiply from infection cards and the players drawing Red (Faded) cities from the Player Deck (This is the Accelerated Incubation rule).

Turn 4

The Researcher moved to Khartoum to be with the Scientist. The Medic dropped a military base in Paris (a card the Medic had since the start of the game), thus establishing a military base in all 6 regions (Objective #2) as we started the game with 5 permanent military bases. The Scientist went to Riyadh and drew the 3rd Epidemic card. The Quar. Spec. dropped an Airstrike on Manila to reduce the Faded in that city from 3 to 2 as it had no quarantine marker on it and could be draw in a re-shuffled Infection Deck. As it happened, Madrid had an outbreak (#3) but it did not cause any chain outbreak due to the Medic’s previous action in London. The Quar. Spec. used her turn to quarantine Shanghai and Bangkok.

Turn 5

The Researcher quarantined Karachi. The Medic moved to Riyadh and got the matching card from the Scientist and cured Black (Sprague), thus completing the mandatory objective of curing the 3 non-Faded diseases (Objective #3)–Winning the game!

Here is the map at the end of the game:

July Part 2 End — note all the Blue and Faded on the board! But we won anyway!

For our end game upgrades we chose:

Add 3 permanent roadblocks–2 around Beijing and the other from Tokyo to San Francisco.

Adding the “Easier Agents” upgrade to BSNL-419. Now the cure could be discovered with one fewer card.

We did not put down our 6th permanent military base in Paris because the July Win Bonus will allow us to do that at the start of August (yay!). We adjusted our Funded Event total back down to 2. August is going to be tough!

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